Chapter 24

"Do you want to try?" she asks as she takes a seat next to me.

The very thought of playing this damn guitar right now feels impossible, but I also feel pulled to it.

I slowly nod my head, but my body stays frozen. I never thought that Summer Kincaid—my sister's best friend, my current babysitter, and the girl who used to drive me nuts for the better part of a decade—would be the one to have me considering picking this up again.

Summer scoots herself back further on my bed, settling against the headboard. Tanned legs extended, crossing one ankle over the other as she smiles at me.

I don't know how we got here. How we got from utter irritation to finding comfort in her.

I loosen my shoulders, nostalgia coursing its way through me. God, it's like muscle memory when I strum a few quick notes before stopping. Heat crawls up my spine and my neck begins to sweat before I feel a delicate touch on the back of my arm.

"Close your eyes and just play."

Her fingers pull away from my skin and I exhale, letting myself find comfort in something that once brought me happiness.

"If this sucks, I don't want to hear it," I joke.

She releases a hearty laugh and repositions herself from where she previously was, moving closer to me, knees underneath her body as she sits by my side.

"No promises. Play me something and I'll try to guess what it is."

"You'll know this one." My voice hoarse as I glance up at Summer, already staring at me.

I'm not someone who gets nervous in front of a crowd—hell, I play football for millions of people every week—but something in this moment about Summer's eyes on me has my stomach flipping upside down.

It feels like riding a bike. The ease of jumping back into it and the calmness it brings me.

A, A, B minor, B minor.

I can feel Summer's eyes on me still. They've been burning into me since I got home this evening and in the last hour she's gotten more out of me than most people have in the last few years.

She smiles when our eyes meet and I know my willpower is about to be tested.

She looks breathtaking. She's a stunner in the daylight, but under the moonlight she's fucking magnificent. Her blue eyes sparkle like diamonds and her skin looks like porcelain—daring me to run my hands over it to feel its silkiness. Her head sways back and forth and her lips start mouthing the words once she recognizes the song.

"You're going to turn me into a puddle if you keep playing," she jokes. "Chris Stapleton is one of my favorites."

I bring the guitar down between my legs, resting it on the floor once I stop playing.

"‘Tennessee Whiskey' is the first song I learned on guitar."

"Was it hard?"

"For me, learning anything on this thing was hard, but this particular song felt easier because I loved it so much I think." I laugh and stretch my back, turning my body to face hers.

"Can you teach me?"

My mouth opens to protest. To tell her I think we should call it a night before I let myself mess up again and fall into her lips. Fuck, I want to. But I was clear about where we stood and if I kiss her again, what the hell does that say?

"Not the whole song, just like, a little bit." She shrugs and sits up closer to me.

"Ah, I don't know, Kincaid. It's getting late and I…"

"Don't trust yourself?"

"Something like that," I confess.

"Trust me, then. Kissing you is the last thing on my mind. Bleh." She sticks her tongue out playfully. I know she's not telling the truth. I know I should still decline and not allow myself to be around her much longer. The temptation I've had over the last couple of weeks with her has been an actual nightmare in some cases. Jolting me out of sleep and withholding it all together.

But being around her is starting to feel like a need . Her presence has become a change in my life that I've been craving. I didn't realize how starved I was until I tasted her. And now, she's all I want.

"Just a few chords," I say, picking up the guitar.

Her smile widens and she pulls her hair back into a ponytail. I watch her tongue wet her full lips and I feel myself getting flustered already.

When she pulls her feet from under her and sits on the bed, I hand her the guitar, letting her get it in a comfortable position.

"Okay, I'm ready. Teach me how to be a rockstar," she jokes as I get up. "What are you doing?" she asks when I take a seat behind her.

"You wanted to learn. This is the best way."

I hear her swallow as I wrap my arms around her, holding her hands as they're delicately placed on the guitar strings.

"This is A," I whisper into her ear, guiding her fingers along the frets. "You'll do this one twice, count to six in between."

She strums once, and I silently count to six before taking her hand and repeating the same chord.

I'm making every effort not to breathe directly onto her skin, but with the close proximity it's hard to avoid. Every time I do, I watch her squirm a little. Her breathing picks up and she wiggles a little bit on the bed.

"Then B minor…" I begin to say, and she waits for my hand to reconnect with hers before she moves it again.

Her coconut scent is all I can focus on and it shows when I wait too long to tell her the next chord.

"What's next?" she whispers, but I don't answer.

She tilts her head up at me and I'm caught up in her stare entirely. Her lips part and I feel her warm breath on my cheek.

My heart is pounding, throbbing out of my chest and I can't fucking stand to sit here much longer with her like this.

Summer's eyes are pleading. I can hear her words even when nothing comes from her lips. She's telling me to fucking kiss her. To take her. To drop all the rules and boundaries I put up and just give in.

"I—um…" A hand runs down my face and I pull back slightly from her, creating some separation between our bodies. Touching her—in any way—seems to be a recipe for disaster.

Something is changing with me when it comes to Summer and I don't have any fucking clue how it happened or when or what the fuck to do with it. I know she's waiting for me to act on it. She's waiting on me to say something, to do something, but my body stills and I can't articulate a sentence. There's this foreign feeling stirring inside of me.

I'm suddenly nervous around her.

"Sorry," I say with a shake of my head. "It's another B minor."

Her features soften, and she looks at her fingers on the guitar before pausing. Against my better judgment, I lean forward, trying not to have my chest flush against her back as I reach my hand over hers.

"Like this," I say quietly, and she nods, letting my hand guide hers.

"Relax your hand a little bit, Kincaid." I can feel her body tense up the further along we get.

She peers up at me through dark lashes, two bright blue pools staring back at me as her fingers rest on the strings under my hand.

"Better?" she whispers, sending a shiver up and down my spine.

"Perfect." I manage to get out on a shaky breath.

She smiles and then removes her hand from the strings, taking the guitar and placing it carefully on the bed beside us.

I've got about 3 percent of my willpower left as she stares and turns to face me. Her chest is rising and falling almost in rhythm with mine.

You can't fucking kiss her again.

The words ring in my ears and I'm hanging by a thread to stay focused on them. I should be getting up and ushering us out of my bedroom and getting her on her way. But if I stand up right now, the fact that I'm so fucking turned on will be too obvious.

She stands from the bed and turns, stopping when she's just in front of my legs. Her eyes roam from my thighs and up my chest until she finally meets my gaze again and I see it written all over her face. If I kiss her, she'll welcome it.

Instead of waiting for me to do anything, she comes closer, letting her leg hit the bed, causing me to lean back slightly. She bends to bring us face to face and rests her hand on the side of my cheek as she leans forward. My heart feels like it fucking stops the second she breathes on my neck.

"Thank you for the lesson," she whispers. Her thumb lightly feathers my jaw as she pulls away and leaves my bedroom.

And I'm left just trying to wrap my head around how the woman who has done nothing but rile me up as long as I've known her, is now the same one to make me completely weak for her.